Medal Card for -
Frederick Ramsey WALKER. Military Cross. 2nd Lieutenant 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. formerly Sergeant Major. Husband of Josephine Margaret Walker, of 107, Donegall Street., Belfast. Awarded Medaille Militaire (France). Fought in the Boer War 1899 -1902 Died in Scotland 6 January 1917. At rest in Dalry Cemetery, Edinburgh, Scotland.
The following extract is credited to Dukie News Issue 8. June 2017 -
Frederick was born in the military barracks in Tipperary on 27 July 1882. His father Tom was a staff sergeant in the 25th (the King’s Own Borderers) Regiment of Foot at the time and his mother was recorded as Mary Susanna (nee Lawson). He was orphaned sometime after between 1891 and 1893; and coming from a military background he was duly admitted to the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Chelsea on 26 May 1893. On leaving the school on 8 August 1896 aged just 14 he joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise’s).
https://doyrms.alumni-online.com/StaticFiles/DoyrmsITW_0000000957.pdf
Extract credited to the newspaper The Scotsman -
Lt Walker who was born in Tipperary in Ireland and joined the army as a boy soldier when he was 13 years old. He died suddenly at Dreghorn camp, in Colinton, Edinburgh, on 6 January, 1917, aged 34. When he died, The Evening Despatch of 10 January 1917 reported that a large number of people accompanied the cortege from camp to the cemetery, preceded by pipe and brass bands of his battalion and followed by six hundred men from different battalions. There was a graveside service, and shots were fired.
War hero’s grave restored by mystery benefactor -
For decades the grave of a First World War military hero regarded as a “soldier’s soldier” who had won the Military Cross and Legion D’Honneur lay overgrown and neglected, his ornate headstone eventually left lying in pieces on the ground.
www.scotsman.com
